Ukraine war latest: Trump envoy calls Zelensky a ‘courageous leader’ after days of criticism from White House – BBC.com
Donald Trump says Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have to “get together” to end the warAnswering questions from reporters in the Oval Office, the US president also says the mineral deal with Ukraine is “pretty close” to being signedZelensky appeared to support this in an address this evening, saying the two countries were working on a draft agreement and he hopes for a “fair result”Earlier, Trump claimed Zelensky has “no cards” to negotiate with, adding: “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings”The US president also said France’s Emmanuel Macron and UK PM Keir Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war in Ukraine, ahead of visits from both leaders to the White House next weekThis video can not be playedWhat Trump and Zelensky have said about each other as rift deepensEdited by James Harness and Jacqueline HowardJeremy BowenInternational EditorWhat a
tumultuous week it’s been. All
those who are worried about the health of the transatlantic alliance will be
even more worried after President Trump’s comments this afternoon.I think
Ukrainians are more worried than ever about the pressure they’re being put
under and now, of course, supporters of President Trump – apologists for the way
he works – say that he throws out verbal gambits to make people drop long-held
positions to make a deal.I’m not so sure
about this because he keeps coming back to them, he keeps repeating them, and
he is the President of the United States, so his words matter.Now, as for the
Ukrainians, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office Igor Brusylo
was saying it’s starting to feel once again like three years ago, in 2022, when
the full-scale invasion happened. In other words, when the independence and
sovereignty of Ukraine felt very much in jeopardy. For them, right now, it’s
deja vu, Brusylo said.We’re almost at the end of our coverage for today, so here’s a look at the key moments.US President Donald Trump has said that Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin need to “get together” to end the war in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters at the White House this evening, Trump also flagged that a mineral deal with Ukraine was close, while at the same time during his nightly address, Ukraine’s president said the two countries were working on a draft agreement. Zelensky, whose ability to lead the war-torn country has been heavily scrutinised by the international community after Trump called him a “dictator”, has been facing pressure to sign a controversial deal on US investment in Kyiv’s minerals.Earlier, Trump accused France’s Emmanuel Macron and the UK’s Keir Starmer of having “done nothing” to bring the conflict in Europe to an end.His comments come days before both leaders are due to visit Washington as part of their first state visits to the new administration. Next week will mark three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and while most European nations are united in their support for Kyiv, Washington’s new ruling party has deviated from the historical pro-Ukraine stance.If you’d like to stay in the know on all things relating to the Ukraine war – we’ve got you covered:Asked about how close the US administration is to securing a mineral deal with Ukraine, Trump says it is “pretty close” and claims it will “get our money back”.Trump reiterates that war “should have never happened” before promising “we’ll get it settled” – but did not provide details on how this would happen.He is further asked whether there are plans for him to visit Moscow, to which the US president says: “No, no I’m not.”We’re now watching live footage from the Oval Office as Donald Trump answers questions from journalists. Donald Trump tells reporters Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin are going to have to “get together” and he thinks there is a chance to get a peace deal “done”. “I had to make sure that Russia wanted to do it,” he adds. During his address this evening, Zelensky also speaks briefly about the US-proposed mineral deal. He says the two countries were working on a draft agreement and that he hoped for a “fair result”.”This is an agreement that can add value to our relationship, and the main thing is to work out the details so that it can work,” he says.During his nightly address this evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Europe to “do more to guarantee peace” in Ukraine.”Europe must and can do much more to guarantee peace,” he says.”We have clear proposals with our European partners,” but insists that “this should be done together with America”.Vitaliy ShevchenkoBBC Monitoring’s Russia editorWe have been reporting how Russian drone attacks routinely cause deaths among Ukrainian civilians and damage civilian infrastructure.This is
what these attacks look like. Footage has emerged showing a Russian Shahed
drone targeting a residential area in Bila Tserkva, a city south of the capital
Kyiv, on Thursday, 20 February. This video has been independently verified , externalby
BBC Verify.Photos showing the aftermath, external of the attack were posted by
the Kyiv region administration head Mykola Kalashnyk, who said one man was injured in the attack.Infantryman Rugbyist is among Ukrainian solders at a training facility who spoke on recent developmentsUkrainian soldiers in training have told the Reuters news agency that Donald Trump’s actions over the past week, including sending a team to negotiate with Russia and criticising Ukraine’s leader, are “his own game” and that they are distrustful of any outcomes without Ukrainian involvement.”Trump, he plays his own game, he follows his own rules, I think there was no need to react to those provocations,” one soldier, who goes by the callsign Rugbyist, says.”How long will we hold on? Until the last man standing. We have no choice. Nobody asked us in 2022 and in 2014 how long will we last, we did not have any help then. Ukraine will hold on as long as it can. With or without help, we will stand firm,” he says.A soldier going by the name Pruzhynka, a call sign meaning springAnother soldier, Pruzhynka, said he doesn’t believe Ukrainians would trust any decisions that may have been made at the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia earlier this week.”They might have reached some agreements there, but these were decisions they made for themselves. Ukrainians are not going to trust all this,” he tells Reuters.”I know that even without America we have a lot left, those who will help. And we can help ourselves, too.”German Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasised his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and reiterated his country’s commitment to free speech, during his last major campaign rally before Sunday’s elections.Scholz’s comments comes at the end of a week where US President Donald Trump re-established contact with Russia – a first since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and feuded with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.Scholz says both Germany and Europe should “stick to their own positions” on the conflict “We won’t leave Ukraine alone and decide things over their heads and we will ensure Ukraine is a country that can choose its own government,” the German chancellor adds.Berlin is Ukraine’s second-largest supplier of military aid – after the US, whose former president, Joe Biden, showed unwavering to Kyiv.A senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine is open to US investment in rare earth minerals – but Kyiv must get economic gains from a deal and be given security guarantees. Speaking to the BBC World Service’s Weekend programme, Mykhailo Podolyak says he’s “surprised” by US President Donald Trump’s recent comments. “It is a bit strange because we see his aggressive rhetoric towards Europe and Ukraine and his much less justified rhetoric towards the Russian Federation,” he says. “We don’t quite understand yet why this administration is making these claims … these claims are definitely unfair.”He emphasises that Ukraine is looking to cooperate with the US, adding that it’s “prepared to open investments into the global industries and the development of mineral fields”. But Ukraine also needs security guarantees, he says. “If the US refuses to support Ukraine, it will be a demoralising factor for the whole of Europe and it will harm the reputation of the US,” he adds.US Vice-President JD Vance has hit back at claims that the Trump administration’s position towards Russia is “appeasement”. “We are negotiating to end the conflict. It is ‘appeasement’ only if you think the Ukrainians have a credible pathway to victory. They don’t, so it’s not,” he says in a post on X, external.He goes on to say that this stems from criticism towards President Trump for “talking to the Russians”.”Well, the president believes to conduct diplomacy, you actually have to speak to people. This used to be called statesmanship,” he says.He also says there is a false idea that the US has “given the Russians everything they want”.Vance adds that he is happy to defend President Trump’s criticisms of the Ukrainian leadership.In an interview on Fox Radio earlier, Trump criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for not negotiating a peace deal in the last three years, saying “I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings”. He also recently labelled Zelensky a “dictator” who had done “a terrible job”.Earlier this week, Andriy Yermak met with US envoy to Ukraine Keith KelloggMoments before Mike Waltz took to the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the head of Volodymr Zelensky’s presidential office Andriy Yermak remarked that he had spoken to Waltz over the phone, and stressed the importance of maintaining “high-level relations” between Ukraine and the US.In a post on Telegram, Yermak said that during the call, he had “expressed gratitude for the support that the American people provide to Ukraine during this important period”.Yermak also met with the US envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg, earlier in the week, to whom he says he told: “How this war ends is of great importance”.The meetings came in the wake of the US holding talks with Russia about peace in Ukraine without any Ukrainian representatives invited.It’s just passed 19:00 in the BBC’s London newsroom. We’ve been following the latest developments as Trump continues to criticise the Ukrainian president amid a deepening rift between the two leaders. If you’re just joining us, here’s the latest:Stick with us for more updates. European leaders gathered for an emergency summit in Paris on MondayEarlier today, Donald Trump doubled down on his criticisms of Europe’s handling of the war in Ukraine, claiming leaders Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron “did nothing” to end it.European leaders ruled out negotiating with Russia long ago, but here’s a look what they’ve done in recent months: Emergency meeting in ParisEuropean leaders have met regularly to discuss the war. Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron called leaders to an emergency summit.Following the meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Schloz said Europe and the US must work together on security, and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said there should be no decisions about Ukraine without its involvement.Agreements and aid for UkraineMany European nations have signed agreements to support and provide aid to Ukraine.In January, Keir Starmer signed a “landmark” 100-year pact, telling Zelensky: “We are with you not just today, for this year or the next – but for 100 years – long after this terrible war is over and Ukraine is free and thriving once again.”Sanctions on RussiaSince Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US, UK and EU, along with countries including Australia, Canada and Japan, have imposed more than 20,000 sanctions on Russia, external.On Wednesday, the European Union announced plans for its sixteenth round, designed to increase pressure on Russia’s economy. (left to right) Oksana Sapronova, 41, Olha Shkapa, 45, and Olena Matviichuk, 50, all fled Ukraine after the February 2022 Russian invasionOksana Sapronova fled her home in Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine almost three years ago after Russia launched a full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.Having now resettled in Poland, she is worried that peace talks between the US and Russia – without Ukraine – will mean her country’s efforts to defend against the invasion will have been in vain. “I simply don’t want to think that our boys were killed in
this war for nothing,” Sapronova, 41, tells the Reuters news agency from a café in Sopot in northern Poland. Sharing her concerns is fellow Ukrainian Olha Shkapa,
45, who fled Kyiv and now lives in Poland.Shkapa says losing the eastern regions – where Russian forces are gaining small advances – would mean “there
was no point in the deaths of so many civilians and soldiers”. For Sapronova, Ukraine “is ruined…there is simply nothing to come
back to for me”, adding she hopes for a
better future for her daughter.”I would like her to live in a country which will not be
rebuilding for the next 10 years because of the war,” she says. Ukraine’s president has been criticised by President Trump for not bringing the war with Russia to an end, claiming “nothing got done” during three years of war.This week Volodymyr Zelensky has been reaching out to leaders across the world for support during the ongoing war. Let’s take a look at some of those he has spoken to so far, and what he said following their conversations:The team at Ukrainecast have been answering listeners’ questions on 5Live.The BBC’s Vitaly Shevchenko, Lyse Doucet and James Waterhouse answer why Europe even needs the US’s backing to take on Russia.Waterhouse says that whilst Ukraine have put up a level of resistance few predicted, Russia has adapted its tactics and increased defence spending. He shares that Russia are now investing more than 6% of its GDP on military spending – its highest since the collapse of the Soviet Union.Shevchenko adds that whilst Europe and the US’s financial support to Ukraine is fairly similar, if the US were to stop providing military aid – would Europe really be prepared to cover the sudden shortfall? Doucet rounds things off by pointing out that the US has advanced technology that Europe has not invested in. That means only an American deterrence will work for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.US President Donald Trump has been speaking on a Fox Radio podcast this afternoon. Here’s what he had to say to host, Brian Kilmeade, on the Russia-Ukraine war:By Anthony Reuben, BBC VerifyLiberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is calling for UK defence
spending to rise to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) – the total economic
activity of a country – “in the next two or three years” and towards 3% after
that.When asked how much that would cost in cash terms, he told
BBC Breakfast: “to 3% it is well over £20bn. To get to 2.5%… it would be
about £4.5 nearly £5bn.”The UK is expected to have spent 2.3% of GDP on defence in
2024 – about £65bn – according to Nato estimates, external.UK GDP was just over £2.8 trillion last year, external,
so an extra 0.2% of that would cost £6bn per year – more than the £4.5bn to
£5bn Davey suggested.To reach 3% of GDP, spending would indeed be about £20bn
more per year.Yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told ITV News “we will
have to make difficult choices so that we can spend that money that is needed
to keep our country safe”, while the prime minister said earlier in the
week that Nato members need to “step up on both capability and on spending and
funding”.You can read more about how much Nato members spend on defence in this article.UK Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has stressed the importance of maintaining a “good and constructive” relationship with the US ahead of the prime minister’s meeting with Donald Trump next week.Speaking at an event at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, McFadden said the UK was “potentially in a good position” with Trump “if we handle it correctly”.”Handling it correctly doesn’t mean following every twist and turn of every comment, but is focusing on what will actually happen as well as what was said,” he said.French President Emmanuel Macron was also invited to the White House next week, and will meet Trump on Monday before Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s meeting on Thursday, while Polish president Andrzej Duda is due to meet with the US president on Saturday.Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
